CHAPTER XVII
HER TRUE FRIENDS
Fortune did not favour Isla that day. At any rate her desire for complete isolation was not gratified.
As she came out of the hotel, after having made her arrangement for Jamie Forbes to fetch her from Creagh to Lochearnhead Station in the morning, she encountered Mrs. Rodney Payne, who hailed her with undisguised delight.
"Dear Miss Mackinnon, we really thought we should never, never see you any more! Why is it that you have quite deserted Achree?"
"I don't know," answered Isla rather humbly. "It is a long way, and--and the days go by."
"But it was not kind. And the messages we have sent by your brother!--has he ever delivered them, I wonder?"
"He has often said to me that you would like me to come oftener to Achree."
"Well, and so we would. And what have you to say for yourself?"
Isla looked at her and smiled. It was impossible not to smile at the beautiful creature whose charm could disarm any hostility. Isla was not hostile to Achree. Only there she must be all or nothing. That was the truth, scarcely yet admitted to herself. A very woman, she could brook no rival, and had stayed high and dry upon the Moor of Creagh, because she would not share Achree and the Rosmeads with Malcolm.